Graham Kendrick (born on 2 August 1950, Blisworth, Northamptonshire) is a prolific British Christian singer-songwriter and worship leader. He is the son of Baptist pastor, the Revd. M. D. Kendrick. He now lives in Croydon and is a former member of Ichthus Christian Fellowship. Together with Roger Forster, Gerald Coates and Lynne Green, he was a founder of March for Jesus.
Kendrick began his songwriting career in the late sixties. His most enduring accomplishment is his authorship of the words and music for the song, “Shine, Jesus, Shine“, which is among the most widely heard songs in contemporary Christian worship worldwide. His other songs have been primarily used by worshippers in Britain. Kendrick is a co-founder of the March for Jesus. He received a Dove Award in 1995 for his international work. In 2000, Brunel University awarded Kendrick an honorary doctorate in Divinity (‘DD’) in “recognition of his contribution to the worship life of the Church”.[1] He was awarded another DD in May 2008, from Wycliffe College in Toronto, Canada
The Cabal That Quietly Took Over the House
For 40 years, the Republican Study Committee has prized ideological purity over partisan loyalty. That mindset now dominates the GOP.
By Tim Alberta
Updated: May 26, 2013 | 3:59 p.m.
May 23, 2013 | 8:20 p.m.
On a frigid Wednesday afternoon in January, Speaker John Boehner sat in a conference room at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., acknowledging the limits of his authority. For the past two years, the Republican Study Committee—a caucus of the most conservative representatives—had defied his leadership, plotted against his policy proposals, and, just two weeks earlier, organized a revolt to dethrone him. A group of RSC malcontents, exasperated with Boehner’s stewardship of the House Republican Conference during the previous session of Congress, persuaded 12 members to oppose Boehner in an effort to replace him with a more conservative leader, just five shy of the number necessary to force a second ballot. This would have legitimized the putsch and provided cover for nominal loyalists to abandon their chief.
Boehner survived, battered and humbled, but there was no time to hold grudges. The internal wounds opened in the 112th Congress were bleeding into the 113th, and Boehner knew he wouldn’t last long as speaker (let alone help his party block the agenda of a commandingly reelected president) unless he sutured those wounds. Tomorrow, Boehner would appear before the entire fragmented GOP conference at its annual retreat to set the next year’s agenda. But first he needed a plan to win back the trust of conservatives. So now, on this winter afternoon, he was meeting with five RSC leaders not to gloat about his reelection but to secure their support.
Four of the guests had at some point chaired the RSC: Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Tom Price of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who had taken over the committee just weeks before. The fifth attendee was House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a longtime RSC member and the recently defeated vice presidential candidate. They were putting the final touches on a deal with the speaker, weeks in the making, to hide ideological divisions by agreeing on a legislative strategy for the new Congress.
Not long ago, it would have been ludicrous for the House speaker to approach the Republican Study Committee on bended knee, much less to depend on it to restore harmony to the conference. The committee’s philosophy of governance would vex any speaker: Members consider themselves conservatives first and Republicans second. They did not come to Washington to play for the Republican team; they came to fight for conservative principles. If that means voting against party interests, so be it. For core RSC believers, ideological purity trumps legislative accomplishment. Period.
For decades, the group was seen as a parasitic anomaly—a fringe organization of hopeless ideologues surviving off the perception of undue moderation among Republican leadership. Several previous speakers had bullied or ignored it, and one even dissolved the RSC in a quest to squelch internal dissent. For decades, the committee’s membership rolls were thin, and internal GOP debates didn’t matter much anyway, because the party was in the minority.
But the 2010 midterms—thanks to an influx of ideologically charged lawmakers converging with an increasingly conservative GOP—changed everything. More than 60 of 85 GOP freshmen joined the Republican Study Committee, giving the group a record 164 members. The committee known as “the conservative conscience of the House” was now, for the first time in history, a majority of the House majority.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-cabal-that-quietly-took-over-the-house-20130523?mrefid=mostViewed
Coming up tonight at 8 pm CT Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover.
on HBO…
Saw the Entertainment Weekly story about this….the pics look eery
It’s eerily haunting.
Black woman rises to leadership in Daughters of the American Revolution
by Donovan X. Ramsey | May 26, 2013 at 8:00 AM
This month, Autier Allen-Craft was elected to the position of regent in the Norwalk–Village Green chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Connecticut. Allen-Craft, a black woman, says the organization has come a long way since its years of controversy related to racial exclusion.
Allen-Craft rose up the ranks in the organization, serving as vice regent of her Connecticut chapter two years ago before being elected to her current, high-level position. Just a few decades prior, she began the search into her family tree that would eventually lead her to membership in DAR.
“I attended Benedict College in South Carolina and I while I was there I lived with my maternal grandmother,” Allen-Craft told theGrio. “I was always interested in why my older ancestor looked they way they did. They were very fair. So I began to ask her questions about who her parents were, and who her grandparents were, and she would tell me as far back as she could remember.”
Before long, Allen-Craft’s curiosity led her to the South Carolina archives in Columbia.
An amazing ancestral discovery
After years of research, in about 1990, she stumbled upon records of her great-great grandfather — a white plantation owner, who was her third-great grandfather. She says after getting over the initial shock, she looked deeper into his ancestry and found that his grandfather, her fifth-great grandfather, had fought in the American Revolution. “He was one of the few plantation owners that would claim his offspring with a black woman,” she said of her great-great grandfather. “Because of that, I’ve been able to trace back as far as I have.”
According to historical record, blacks played a significant role the American Revolution. One of the first “martyrs” of the American Revolution was Crispus Attucks, a man of African Descent who was killed in the Boston Massacre. Black Minutemen fought at the battles of Lexington and Concord as early as April 1775. And when Rhode Island needed soldiers, the state legislature passed a law in 1778 that said “every able-bodied Negro, mulatto, or Indian man-slave” could fight. An estimated 200 men enlisted with the promise of freedom as a reward.
The need for diversity in heritage organizations
Marvin-Alonzo Greer, an educator and historian at the Atlanta History Center, understands the winding path experienced by Allen-Craft. As the descendant of a Civil War soldier and member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War – a fraternal order similar to DAR — he believes the historic exclusion of people of color from such organizations is a byproduct of systemic racism and the “whitewashing” of American history.
“There were a little more than 5,000 blacks that fought for the colonies in the American Revolution, and on the British side there were many more,” Greer told theGrio. He calls the election of Allen-Craft “significant” because of DAR’s history of racism — but says more should be done. “It’s a major step forward, but it hasn’t gone far enough. I think there should be more diversity in all of these organizations. They’re about teaching history and commemorating our ancestors. That’s important to all Americans.”
http://thegrio.com/2013/05/26/black-woman-rises-to-leadership-in-daughters-of-the-american-revolution/#s:b9ebe7eaa214877864e2a9ec9789f14d
Despite natural disasters like Moore, black pastors tread lightly on climate change
by Mashaun D Simon | May 26, 2013 at 9:00 AM
As survivors of the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes assess their damage and begin the process of recovery and rebuilding, church leaders from across the country are considering ways in which they can help. But some are asking whether beyond aid, churches should be confronting what many scientists believe are the root causes of natural disasters.
In Oklahoma, local churches locally are collecting donations, sending volunteers, even organizing blood drives. And nationally, denominations like the United Methodist Church (UMC), Southern Baptist Church (SBC) and the United Church of Christ (UCC) are finding ways to help churches and residents in the area.
The response from churches is no different from responses following past natural disasters, suggests Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and president of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, whose church has in the past raised funds for churches in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, as well as in Alabama following natural disasters there and Far Rockaway, NY following Hurricane Sandy.
“As an individual church, we have also responded to some of the international incidences and disasters that have taken place as Baptists in the American Baptist Church,” he said.
While Moore attempts to recover, conversations have once again begun regarding climate change and their link to the influx of natural disasters across the globe.
Climate’s impact on black communities
Some suggest climate change is an issue and natural disasters like in Moore are evidence of that, while others – stereotypically labeled as more evangelical (read: conservative) politicians, church and community leaders – suggest something totally different.
It’s an age-old debate in religious, political and scientific arenas. One camp has argued that global warming and climate change is very real as a result of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the melting of snowcaps. However, on the other hand, other groups are skeptical. They argue the rise in temperatures is normal, and the rise of devastating hurricanes like Katrina and Sandy as well as the deadly tsunamis is Japan are a coincidence.
Where are African American church leaders and pastors in this conversation? The question is a necessary one. Most preachers – especially black preachers – believe God gives humanity dominion over the earth, “its inhabitants and all creation” in the book of Genesis.
Butts is hesitant to speculate, but said he doesn’t think many black preachers and pastors are part of the climate change conversation.
“I do know that some are. I do here and I am sure of others in parts of the country,” he said. “I preached a sermon about a love for nature base on God’s command in Genesis. But in terms of an organized effort – I am not aware. I do know that people have been talking about these kinds of things for a long time.”
Referencing the work of the UCC historically through their social justice initiatives, Butts points out that there was talk about environmentalism because blacks were often exposed to rancid environments.
“In places in the south as well as the north, toxic dumping grounds for chemical waste, were often [located] in areas adjacent to black communities – bus depots, sewage plants on the Hudson River adjacent to Harlem,” he said. “So that concern to the environment has been around for awhile.”
Tyson-Lord J. Gray, a PhD candidate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN is completing his dissertation on this very topic. In his research he has found that historically, most black communities’ engagement in issues is very localized. In most instances, the concern is “how are our communities impacted,” he told TheGrio.
“Recently there has been a more global perspective by some black churches. I would not want to make that appear to be any type of movement or wave,” he said. “At the same time I would not want to overlook or negate the efforts of leaders like the Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta.”
http://thegrio.com/2013/05/26/black-pastors-climate-change/
Sergio Garcia; We Fried Chicken Eatin’ Black People Thank You
Thank you Sergio Garcia, thank you, from the bottom of my deep-fryer . . . thank you.
I know you want the Chickens to go-away, but not yet.
It’s always entertaining when a White person “slips” and falls out-of that ridiculously concocted and contrived “color-blind” character camouflage suit most slip into and out-of on a whim . . . and say what they truly believe in terms of race, sexuality, religion and/or economics.
Sergio, being an emotionally high-strung spaniard decided to employ a 100 year-old stereotype to backhand and belittle Tiger Woods. And yes, for those millions of White folks who’re either have the CCA syndrome (Convenient Caucasian Amnesia) or happen to be deliberately ignorant of History – US and Western Civilization, i.e., their own story . . . the depiction of Black folks as luving themselves some Fried Chicken n’ Watermelon is akin to telling a Mexican to “shut up Pedro and go eat some Tacos n’ beans, get drunk on Tequila . . .”
Akin to depicting Russians as drunks strung out on Vodka or Japanese people eating only raw fish, bowing incessantly to one-another or Chinese as barbarians who cannibalize the family dog.
No wait, for those White folks who don’t understand this is a jab, a shot, an insult . . . compare n’ contrast it to telling a American Indian to hey, stop-bye for dinner, we’ve got plenty of firewater . . .!”
See, I’m disgusted by the unbelievable notion being furthered by Conservative White people regarding Sergio’s remark – “How is Fried Chicken an insult? ”So now we can’t say Blacks n’ fried chicken in the same sentence because its not PC?” Those type statements, which are littered all-over cyberspace just drives me crazy. The idea that the “most privileged” people on the planet, the self-proclaimed most-developed and advanced brand of mankind . . . tries to “play dumb” when these “slips” come up.
It is the personification of “don’t piss down my back . . n’ then try to tell me it’s raining . . .!”
My willingness to get down in the mud with duplicitous chumps like Garcia is because I know, for a fact Jack, White men can dish it out all day . . . but they can’t take one- second of it.
http://blackathlete.net/2013/05/sergio-garcia-fried-chicken-eatin-black-people/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q18eu5BG2k4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfvOSmLwZ8
Of course the GOP doesn’t care about you either Bob Dole; Remember?
Sly Move
Posted by mistermix at 11:51 am
May 262013
Here’s a little Chicago-style politics:
By law, Obama has to nominate two Republicans to the CPSC, and Buerkle is, above all things, a Republican. In fact, she’s a foaming-at-the-mouth full-on teatard who beat Dan Maffei in a squeaker for NY-25 in 2010. After redistricting, Maffei pushed her out in 2012. If she takes this nomination, the next time she runs for Congress she’s going to have to explain how starving the beast is consistent with a $155K suckle at the government sugar teat. That’s how you solve a problem like Ann Marie.
(BTW, the outraged teahadi comments on that article are priceless.)
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/05/26/sly-move/
He Dislikes You Right Back
by BooMan
Sun May 26th, 2013 at 10:21:14 AM EST
Sometimes, I wonder why I so frequently see disparaging remarks in the press about the president’s disposition or mien. He’s aloof, arrogant, detached, above-it-all, distant, dismissive. The thing is, he doesn’t strike me as any of those things. Maybe every once in a while I get a brief hint that he’s impatient or frustrated with the stupidity that surrounds him. But, to me, it seems like he hides it well. Watch him console grieving parents or enter into a little child’s world or work a rope line, and he’s compassionate, intimate, wholly-there.
The problem seems to be that he keeps his guard up around reporters. And reporters do the reporting on the president’s personality. Consider the observation that Robert Draper made while visiting the new Bush library with Maureen Dowd:
In other words, there is something about Barack Obama that Robert Draper simply doesn’t like. Maureen Dowd obviously feels the same way. He has an “imperial mien.” In their mouths, descriptions like “precocious” and [using a] “lapidary logic” sound like insults. They hate the smart kid. Obama projects a sense of superiority to these reporters. He makes them feel small and excluded and less than. And they resent him for it.
But the same things that these reporters dislike are what draw me to the president. Incisiveness, reason, cool-headedness, dispassion, intelligence, compassion, strategic thinking, an eye on the long game.
How often have we seen someone in a crowd shout out “we love you” at the president and watched him say “I love you back”? The stuck-in-the-24/7-news-cycle Beltway press has no feel for a man who lives as much in the future and the past as he does in the present. What I see as thoughtfulness, they see as dismissiveness. They scream “we don’t like you,” and he intimates “right back atcha.”
The day-to-day clutter of manufactured controversy and faux-scandal is ultimately unimportant to the president. What does he care of critics who want to know why gay rights have not yet been addressed, when he knows he will have laid down the most progress in history on that front by the end of his first term? He’s working from a vision. When a Code Pink protester rails against him for the situation as it stands, he can afford to be magnanimous because he’s in the process of laying out where we’re going.
This is what the press sees as being detached and above-it-all. But, in the context of effective governance, those attributes are virtues. How could he not feel at least some disdain for those who are so absorbed in the now that they can do nothing but quibble and nitpick, attacking him with a million pinpricks while never sensing that his vision is too big to be stymied by such trivialities?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/26/102114/680
PBO & FLOTUS: AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!
Moral Ambiguity Should Be Our Lodestar
by BooMan
Sun May 26th, 2013 at 12:41:19 PM EST
Perhaps we need a psychologist to take a look at Rep. Peter King’s reaction to President Obama’s counterterrorism speech. Rep. King says he was offended by the tone of the speech and that the president should stop moralizing and “apologizing for America.” The president defended our counterterrorism policies as legal and effective, but he went on to say, “To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance.”
If the president apologized, it was with considerable nuance.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/26/124119/122
Lynn Whitfield’s Daughter Grace Gibson to Debut in ‘Black Nativity’
May 25, 2013 by Brittney M. Walker
Black Nativity” is in production right now with an all-star cast including Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese, Nas and so many more.
But we recently learned via Wilson Morales’ BlackFilm.com that Grace Gibson, the daughter of actress Lynn Whitfield and director Brian Gibson, was added to the cast for her feature debut.
The film is a modern re-telling of Langston Hughes’ version of the Bible’s nativity story.
A street-wise teen from Baltimore, raised by a single mother, takes off to New York to spend Christmas with relatives.
During his stay, he learns a few things, stretches his comfort zone and discovers the true meaning of faith, healing and family.
Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film will include music from Raphael Saadiq.
http://www.eurweb.com/2013/05/lynn-whitfields-daughter-grace-gibson-to-debut-in-black-nativity/
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Why President Obama is the Most Heckled President
*Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin’s repeated and drug out heckling of President Obama during his drone policy speech is simply the latest in a disgusting and damaging repeat act that has become almost ritual. The White House announces a major policy speech by Obama. Then the predictable happens. Either at the start or midway through his speech, the shouts from the floor begin. The drone policy speech followed the act’s script.
It’s true that George W. Bush, Clinton, and Reagan were at times heckled, and in Bush’s case a shoe was tossed at him. But with Obama the pattern and sheer numbers of times he’s been heckled top anything any former president has received. Counting Benjamin’s eruption the president has been heckled at least ten times. The topper was the infamous “you lie” rant from Georgia Congressman Joe Wilson during his 2009 State of the Union address.
This pattern of public vilification and insult of Obama during his speeches was set almost from the start of his White House tenure when a small knot of black protestors verbally assailed the president at a Florida stop in 2008 for allegedly not doing enough about predatory lending. The pattern firmly took hold from there, and it virtually became open season to disrupt an Obama speech anywhere and at any time. The Tea Party didn’t help matters with its incessant marches and rallies that routinely featured the vilest, demeaning, and borderline racist depictions of Obama. The relentless public heckling of Obama also stems from the even more insidious pattern of pure hate and vilification that spews forth against Obama from a parade of websites, bloggers, talk show jocks, and more than a few GOP officials with assorted borderline racist digs and taunts. In 2011, Baylor University researchers tracked more than 20 Facebook page groups and users and found them filled with racist venom aimed at Obama. There may be even more of them today.
Obama had the dubious distinction of being the earliest presidential contender to be assigned Secret Service protection on the 2008 campaign trail. As the showdown with Republican presidential rival John McCain heated up in the general election in 2008, the flood of crank, crackpot, and screwball threats that promised murder and mayhem toward Obama continued to pour in. This prompted the Secret Service to tighten security and take even more elaborate measures to ensure his safety.
GOP leaders have on only the rarest of rare occasions issued any public rebuke of the street side abusive depictions and the torrent of verbal broadsides against Obama.
But then again why would they. The GOP has far superseded any insult that a lone heckler could achieve in its self-designated role as official heckler of Obama. There has not been a moment that has gone by that top GOP congressional leaders have not called Obama out on some issue. The framing of their criticism has not been polite, gentlemanly, or exhibited the traditional courtesy and respect for the office of the presidency. This has done much to create a climate of distrust, and vilification that has made it near legitimate even expected that Obama be heckled. The GOP’s official heckling has taken many forms, all mean spirited and petty, rather than purely the customary expression of opposition to policies that clashing political parties and their leaders show toward each other. For instance, House Speaker John Boehner, brashly told Obama in 2011 that he could not deliver his State of the Union speech on the date that he chose. This was quickly followed by other GOP leaders who loudly said that they would not even bother to attend Obama’s speech. Obama changed the date.
The subtle and overt interplay of race, Obama’s popularity, and the temptation to some of getting fifteen seconds of fame, has become an irresistible and combustible mix. A heckler (s) know that a well-timed shout at Obama is a sure fire guarantee to get massive media attention.
http://www.eurweb.com/?p=335171
The Wire creator David Simon on what’s behind the US war on drugs – extended video interview
Writer and ex-crime reporter David Simon, who created HBO TV drama The Wire, speaks to John Mulholland about capitalism, Margaret Thatcher and how anti-drug enforcement has evolved into social control. Simon features heavily in Eugene Jarecki’s documentary The House I Live In, which explores the war on drugs in the US
VIDEO:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2013/may/25/wire-david-simon-war-drugs-video-interview?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
The young Asean Johnson from Chi-Town is on MHP with his mother.
Seniority and Diversity
by BooMan
Sat May 25th, 2013 at 11:41:42 PM EST
When it comes to assigning committee chairs in the House of Representatives, the Democrats have long adhered to a rather strict seniority system. Whoever has served longest on the committee gets the chair, unless they have some significant political liabilities. Every once in a while, a member may be passed over because they are the subject of an ethics investigation, or sometimes because of advanced age. But the Democrats don’t place ideological litmus tests on their committee chairmen. They do not skip people over in the name of diversity.
For a very long time, this seniority policy meant that minorities had little hope of becoming the chairman of a full committee. There were simply too many white members ahead of them, and there was almost no way to jump past them. There was grumbling in the Black and Hispanic Caucuses, but they went along with the system.
And then a funny thing happened late in the last decade. A host of black lawmakers and a couple of Latino ones finally outlasted all their white colleagues. John Conyers became chair of the Judiciary Committee after serving 33 years. Charlie Rangel became chair of Ways & Means Committee after serving for 27 years. Bennie Thompson took over Homeland Security. Suddenly, people of color had reached the committee promised land. And then, suddenly, people began talking about moving away from a strict seniority system. It wasn’t right.
Rangel lost his chairmanship because of some ethics issues, and then the Democrats lost control of the House. Yet, the same seniority system applies to ranking members in the minority.
The newest flareup is erupting in anticipation of Ed Markey winning the special Senate election in Massachusetts next month. That would open up the ranking member position on the Natural Resources panel. Rep. Pete DeFazio of Oregon has the seniority to win the seat and Raúl Grijalva ranks seventh. Nonetheless, Rep. Grijalva plans on challenging DeFazio. He claims as part of his rationale that he would add diversity to Democrats’ leadership. That’s the same argument that racial minorities made for years, and it has always had some merit. But scrapping seniority now, when minorities are finally benefitting from the system, would threaten their hard-won gains.
Based on the seniority system, any Democrat currently serving as ranking member stands to become the chairman if the Democrats retake control of the House.
Here’s a list of the minority ranking members whose chairs would be threatened if the Dems move away from the seniority system:
Ethics- Linda Sánchez (D-CA)
Financial Services- Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Homeland Security- Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
Judiciary- John Conyers (D-MI)
Oversight & Government Reform- Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Science, Space, and Technology- Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Small Business- Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)
There is a much longer list if we begin to consider subcommittee chairs, many of which are very important. However, those posts have never been as rigidly assigned as full committee chairs.
In short, Raúl Grijalva doesn’t have a very good argument. Scrapping the seniority system now would not promote diversity. Because the safest and bluest seats in the country are mainly held by minorities, they can expect to rise steadily in seniority as the less safe lawmakers are winnowed out. Moreover, a lot of minorities are already poised to take gavels, including some of the most powerful ones.
That leaves Grijalva to argue that he is more loyal than DeFazio, which is probably narrowly true. He can also argue that he better represents the party’s views on natural resources and the environment, but that is arguable. DeFazio is pretty solid on those issues.
It’s fair to have a debate about the merits of the seniority system. It’s not the only system. It’s not necessarily the best system. For a long time it suppressed diversity; now it promotes it without even trying to promote it.
But there should be a compelling reason for changing the rules in the middle of the game. And the diversity argument utterly fails.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/25/234142/646
And for those Arrested Development fans out there…
the new episodes are now available on Netflix streaming
oh my….
I didn’t know…
THE BOONDOCKS IS ON NETFLIX!!!!
YES YES YES YES YES YES
Going off to have some laughs today
LOL Love the Boondocks too. Have fun, Rikyrah!
Why Rethugs aren’t squealing about the sequester…
African Americans most vulnerable to proposed federal cuts
Massive cuts in essential federal programs are being proposed by the Obama administration. The chained Consumer Price Index would affect Social Security and other benefits, while $400 billion would be taken out, over 10 years, of Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs for the poor and elderly.
These efforts are purportedly connected with the need to trim the federal budget deficit. A “sequester,” imposed earlier this year, has resulted in furloughs for government workers, health care industry layoffs and the elimination of decades-long programs for low-income people.
The chained CPI will severely reduce the limited yearly increases in Social Security payments as well as benefits received by retired government employees, veterans and Supplemental Security Income recipients.
The Center for Global Policy Solutions has placed the Obama administration’s proposals within a broader context – showing that the historic national oppression of African Americans has rendered this community lower wages and less accumulated household wealth. The continuing five-year economic crisis has also disproportionately driven down the living standards of African Americans and other peoples of color.
The CGPS says, “African Americans are among the most vulnerable when it comes to economic security. As of 2011, over half of the African-American senior population was financially insecure.” This stems from the lack of opportunity and systematic national discrimination in education and the labor market. Additionally, the decades-long restructuring of the industrial and service sectors of the U.S. economy has left whole layers of the workforce without decent jobs with adequate salaries and benefits.
After retirement, African Americans face even lower incomes due to pensions and Social Security payments based on their earnings during their last employed years. Any cuts to incremental increases in retirees’ monthly payments can only result in deeper poverty.
CGPS stresses, “The persistent income and wealth inequality seen among African Americans comes from years of disproportionately lower levels of earnings, employment, educational attainment, and ownership of family assets. … African Americans have had significantly fewer opportunities to build assets over time and often lack the savings to ensure financial security throughout their post-working years.”
http://www.workers.org/2013/05/17/african-americans-most-vulnerable-to-proposed-federal-cuts/
The Civil War Was Fought Over Slavery. Period.
Posted on May 25, 2013 at 12:30 pm by Bob Cesca
David Frum wrote a nice piece about this topic in the context of commemorating the 25th anniversary of Battle Cry of Freedom. His salient points:
I’m contemplating a book that utterly turns over the notion of the Confederacy as this noble, gallant Lost Cause and re-casts all of the appropriate players, Lee, Davis, Jackson, and all of their apologists, as treasonous, sadistic, sociopathic villains who disguised the inherent cruelty of the South under the almost translucent banner of states’ rights and liberty, and, in the name of preserving their terrible “institution” of slavery, were responsible for 650,000-plus dead Americans. Pull no punches.
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/05/the-civil-war-was-fought-over-slavery-period.html
The Daily Show Traps Far-Right Radio Host
Posted on May 25, 2013 at 1:38 pm by Bob Cesca
This rules. Just utterly rules.
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2013/05/the-daily-show-traps-far-right-radio-host.html
in case you missed this from last night.
this entire video is HILARIOUS
http://youtu.be/ZwS14TiO7Pk
LOVED IT! Thanks, It made my morning. Alfonso looks great too. Graham Nortonn Show, looks like they have tons-o-fun
Thank you SouthernGirl
My pleasure. I love Graham Kendrick’s music. Amazing Love, O, Magnify The Lord With Me and Lift High The Banners of Love are my favorites.
A great Sunday to you. :)
Happy Sunday, 3Chics!
Amazing Love, O What Sacrifice
The Son Of God Given For Me
My Debt He Pays And My Death He Dies
That I Might Live..
Bless your Holy Name, Lord Jesus!
Good Morning,Everyone at 3CHICS!
Good Morning, Everyone. Happy Sunday. :-)